10% First Impressions: The Princess Beard by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne

What is kind of fever dream is this book? I'd requested the book because the tales of a suddenly bearded princess aboard a pirate ship sounded like an awesome pitch. Reading this book is wild, not because that's what you get, but because of how exactly you get it. Wordplay and funny quizzical names build a mythology and landscape that mirrors modern society. So far we've been introduced to Itchmael, the elderly elf who is called into service by the god Pellanus, Harkovita, the princess who grows a beard, and Vic, the centaur who wields tea magic. And they're all wild characters.

Published in early October of this year, the eBook I'm reading of The Princess Beard (now hearing how it sounds like The Princess Bride) sits at about 330 pages. Usually when I do my 10% read I count my 10% of the book (in this case 33 pages) from the initial numbering. The story starts on page 13, so normally I would go to whichever chapter finished after page 46. Today, pressed for time, I stuck to 10% of the eBook count and read up to page 36, reading the first three chapters of the book.

The pacing is a bit fast. The narration is funny and metaphors are obvious so the story's cute there, but characters, namely Harkovita, are too accepting of circumstances. We have a lot of modern references, so one can take the read as being loose blanket metaphors and substitutions. For example, we have "krossfit" referring to CrossFit, centaurs progressively putting down toxic masculine culture, and more - the first few chapters are rife we these cute allusions. Still, I can't say I'm invested in the story, whatever that may be.

I expect we're going to see the three aforementioned characters and whichever others may be later introduced dealing with personal conflicts leading to acceptance and affirmations of personal identities and truths. What peaks my interest the most remains Itchmael and his story. What will the supernatural aspects be? How will the in-story mythology play out in real time? I appreciate that Pellanus, the in-story deity, has a male and female voice, seemingly the voices of the two authors. 

So far, into my short read, I'm smiling. Not yet laughing uproariously but that may come later. It's a cute book. This is the first book I've read from either author, writing alone or together. Set in the world of Pell, an existing world built in other novels, I'm treating this book as a stand-alone. Being a expansion through stories of an existing fantasy world may be the reason for the perceived fast pacing, but I hope we get an insular conclusion to whatever stories are to be told.